Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Enterprise Fenland, based in March, has been providing support for Fenland's micro businesses and potential entrepreneurs since 1982 and helped start up a total of 1,200 businesses.

Neil Dick of Enterprise Fenland said: “The decision to become a division of NWES was a strategic one based on the current and anticipated changes in the business support environment.

“Our clients will have access to a diverse portfolio of products and services which will help people who want to start up and grow their businesses - we can better deliver these services in Fenland as part of NWES.”

Kevin Horne, chief executive of NWES added: “This strategic merger will fit in with EEDA’s plan to streamline business support in the region and will help us to provide our services to a wider audience.

“Residents of Fenland will receive access to enhanced support and we are pleased to announce that all jobs at Enterprise Fenland will remain safe – indeed our aim is to increase the numbers of staff operating in the Fenland area.”

Both NWES and Enterprise Fenland are private, not for profit organisations. They are classed as enterprise agencies and are members of the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies.

One of the key purposes of an enterprise agency is to promote economic regeneration by the setting up of small firms, provision of managed workspace and other business support functions to aid a firm’s growth.

The role of enterprise agencies has changed over the last 20 years, initially set up to combat the effects of large scale redundancies in the 1980s, they have adapted to meet the ever increasing and complex needs of potential and existing entrepreneurs.

Like many other private firms, to become sustainable enterprise agencies have had to diversify, and many generate private sources of income to be able to fund services to benefit clients.

NWES and Enterprise Fenland services include business advice for people wanting to start in business, comprehensive training on compiling a robust business plan and developmental courses in management skills such as marketing, finance and HR.

They will provide finance to help companies start or expand throughout the eastern region and currently manage nearly 200 business units across the region where fledgling and growing companies can develop in a supportive environment.

Virtual tenancy, meeting and conference room hire, university student placements, mentors and other business support schemes are all part of their combined remit to help boost the local economy.